Dirty Reads ...

SQLCrunch: All you can eat ....

I've just spent the best part of today getting through the backlog of links (123 of them) for posting to SQLCrunch. Obviously too many to list individually, but here's a selection;

Installing SQL Server 2008 on a Windows Server 2008 Cluster

Installing a clustered instance of SQL Server 2008 on Windows Server 2008 has changed significantly from earlier versions. In this 4 part post, Edwin walks through the process including screen shots and coverage of the iSCSI Initiator ... Source : Edwin Sarmiento - mssqltips.com

Free E-Book; Understanding Microsoft Virtualization Solutions

A free 15MB pdf download covering Microsoft based virtualization solutions ... Source : Microsoft.com - Downloads

MySpace.com and SQL Server

MySpace.com runs one of the largest (if not "the" largest) SQL Server implementations in the world. Learn how they do it here ... Source : WatchTechVideos.com - Video Download

Creating Alerts using T-SQL Script

In this post, Paul walks us through the process of creating an alert for a particular error message and also discusses the types of alerts we should create by default for all new SQL Server installations ... Source : Paul Randal - SQLSkills.com - Blog Post

Database Snapshot Performance Considerations

This whitepaper covers snapshots from several angles including the impact on index creation, duration to create a snapshot and restoration of databases from a snapshot ... Source : Microsoft.com - Downloadable Word Document

Presentation Logic; Database or App?

Do you format dates in stored procedures or an application layer? This post from Jonathon Kehayias (and a follow up post from Alexander Kuznetsov) talks about the pros and cons of each technique ... Source : Jonathan Kehayias - SQLBlog.com

Perl vs. Powershell vs. SSIS vs. Batch Files

What's the best/easiest way to execute multiple .sql script files in a given directory? What starts out as a simple perl script example from Linchi turns into a contest of sorts using various other script languages and tools to achieve the same result ... Source : Linchi Shea - SQLBlog.com

Pre-Installation Checklist

Brent shares his pre-installation checklist containing best practices for preparing for a SQL Server installation. This post also links to a follow up blog entry on post installation tasks ... Source : BrentOzar.com - Blog Post

Fixing setup prior to running it

Bob walks us through the new slipstream setup process whereby service packs and cumulative updates can be included in the one installation ... Source : Bob Dorr - CSS SQL Server Engineers - Blog Post

Wait Stats (for the last second)

Using the sys.dm_os_wait_stats DMV to identify wait statistics is a crucial step in any performance tuning exercise, however, the results returned are accumulated since the last server restart. In this post, Jason demonstrates a technique for using this DMV to return wait stats for the last second, useful for troubleshooting performance problems in real time ... Source : Jason Massie - Blog Post

Adam Machanic's Who is Active Script

Adam has released the latest version of his excellent DMV based current activity script Who Is Active - version 8.4 ... Source : Adam Machanic - SQLBlog.com

Paging T-SQL Results

How do you return a particular page of results with minimal overhead? Robert walks through a number of options before finishing with the lowest overhead approach ... Source : Robert Cary - SQLServerCentral.com

HBA Queue Depth Resources

A great blog from Joe focussed on HBA Queue Depth. In it, he links to a number of other prominent blogs which describe the performance impact (good and bad) of testing with various different settings ... Source : Joe Sack - MSDN.com - Blog Post

SSD vs. SAS and SATA

A great article from AnandTech comparing SSD to SATA and SAS ... Source : AnandTech.com - Article

SQLCrunch Update: Clustering

Added to SQLCrunch.com/clustering this week ...

Overview of Failover Clustering with Windows Server 2008

In this 10 page summary, we learn the major new Clustering enhancements in Windows Server 2008 ... Source : Microsoft.com - Downloadable Word Document

Understanding Quorum Configurations

This short Technet article does a good job of explaining the importance of Quorum in a cluster ... Source : Microsoft.com - Technet Article

Multi-Site Clustering in Windows Server 2008

A great whitepaper (16 pages) covering Multi-Site clusters, including the business need for geographical dispersion and considerations for Quorum, Network and Storage ... Source : Microsoft.com - Downloadable Word Document

Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering

A 22 page document detailing the new features and capabilities of Failover Clustering in Windows Server 2008 ... Source : Microsoft.com - Downloadable Word Document

Auto Notification for Cluster Failover

A simple but effective tip from Tim regarding a low cost method for email notification on cluster node failure ... Source : Tim Ford - mssqltips.com

Cheers

Drinking from the SQL fire hose

One of the great things about working with SQL Server is the incredible support community that has grown alongside the product itself. From local user groups through to conferences and forum websites, the breadth and depth of knowledge available through these mediums is possible only because of many very talented people willing to share their own valuable time in helping others.

Back in 2007, I decided that the best way for me to further advance my knowledge (and therefore career prospects) was to become vigilant with reading and summarizing blogs, articles and whitepapers from Microsoft and SQL Server MVPs. There is a massive amount of freely available SQL Server knowledge out there (far more than I ever imagined) and I naively decided that the best way to manage and benefit from it was to categorize, summarize and link to what I believed to be the best available content. SQLCrunch was born as a result of that decision, and to this day I desperately try and keep up with the torrent of great information released on a daily basis.

Over the last few months, I've been completely consumed with my book, and as a result, the SQLCrunch updates have reduced in frequency somewhat. I've got 143 links queued up and ready to go, and will be adding these to the site over the next week or so. With so many links to add, rather than release them in chronological order (which I typically do), I've decided to release them grouped by category, starting this week with Business Intelligence links ....

Fast Track Data Warehouse Design

This whitepaper introduces and defines a repeatable architecture for building scalable SMP based data warehousing solutions in SQL Server 2008 ... Source : SQLCat.com - Whitepaper

Analysis Services Codeplex Projects

Codeplex is an absolute goldmine. Check out these Analysis Services projects including SSAS stress testing and load simulation, collecting SSAS performance data, powershell scripts and SSIS packages for querying/collecting SSAS DMVs, monitoring scripts for Management Data Warehouse and a whole lot more ... Source : Codeplex.com

Slowly Changing Dimensions

In this post, Boyan walks us through an example implementation of a Slowly Changing Dimension (SCD) ... Source : Boyan Penev - Blog Post

The Data Loading Performance Guide

This paper contains the tricks and techniques used by the SQLCat team to achieve the ETL World Record for loading over 1TB of data in under 30 minutes ... Source : MSDN.com - Technical Article

Copying and Moving DTS packages

This post describes the process of copying and moving DTS packages between servers, including to SQL 2005/2008 destinations in which they need to be retained in legacy mode i.e.; not upgraded to SSIS packages ... Source : MSDN.com - Blog Post

SSIS Expression Language

In the first post in this series, Andy introduces us to the SSIS expression language, and provides some basic examples. Be sure to follow his later posts on derived columns, conditional splits and dynamic property expressions ... Source : Andy Leonard - SQLBlog.com

Reporting Services Performance Optimizations

In the latest addition to their Building and Deploying Large Scale Reporting Services Environments series, the SQLCAT team describes methods for optimizing Reporting Services architecture for higher throughput and performance, for both 2005 and 2008 environments ... Source : SQLCAT.com - Technical Notes

SSRS Management Reports

Thanks to Greg Low for pointing this one out. This BOL article walks us through the process of installing the sample Server Management reports for reporting on Reporting Services itself ... Source : SQL Server Books Online

...

Cheers

source: www.rodcolledge.com

SQLCrunch Weekly Update

This week on SQLCrunch ...

Using Emergency Mode to access a suspect/recovery pending database

A great post from Paul that walks through the process of simulating a corrupt transaction log, and the available options for accessing the database ... Source : Paul Randal - SQLSkills.com - Blog Post

Using the Management Studio T-SQL Debugger

In this screencast, SQL Server MVP Paul Nielsen walks us through the new T-SQL Management Studio debugger ... Source : Paul Nielsen - screencast.com

What is (and what causes) corruption?

Depending on who you talk to, "Corruption" can mean anything from orphaned records due to an application bug through to a trashed hard drive. In this post, Paul categorizes corruptions, and dispels a few myths along the way ... Source : Paul Randal - SQLSkills.com - Blog Post

Windows Groups; Management Challenges for SQL Server Logins

The Windows Authentication mode allows logins to be defined for both Windows users and groups. As Laurentiu points out in this blog post, whilst adding Windows Groups can simplify management, they come with some additional considerations, particularly around object ownership and default databases/schemas ... Source : Laurentiu Cristofor - MSDN.com - Blog Post

Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering

A great overview of the clustering enhancements in Windows Server 2008 including the new Management Interface, Quorum Models, Storage Interaction and Migration features ... Source : TechNet Magazine - Article

Mastering SQL Server Profiler

Written by Brad McGehee, this 283 page pdf covers just about everything there is to know about Profiler. Includes coverage of trace templates, deadlocks, blocks, slow running queries, statistics operations, auditing & perfmon integration. Thanks to Tom Gniadek for the heads up on the link ... Source : Brad McGehee - Red-Gate.com

Physical Database Storage Design

One of the classics. This downloadable whitepaper covers the all important process of designing storage for SQL Server. As well as an overview of the differences in OLTP/OLAP workloads, it includes details of sizing a system for performance and throughput, RAID levels and the different types of storage systems available today ... Source : Microsoft.com - Whitepaper

system_health Xevent

Using the new Xevent model, the system_health session can be used to look back on the detail of a variety of system problems including sev 20+ errors, non yielding problems, deadlocks and blocking issues ... Source : CSS SQL Server Engineers - Blog Post

A Walk Down Memory Lane

A fantastic powerpoint presentation from Christian that covers all of the important memory configuration tasks including the limits of 32 bit systems, the memtoleave area, considerations for 64 bit systems, AWE on 32/64 bit systems and setting mix/max memory values ... Source : Christian Bolton - Coeo.com - pdf presentation

Partition Alignment

There are many articles that list partition alignment as an important configuration step, but few that go to this level of detail explaining why this is important. In this post, Jimmy also links to a downloadable powerpoint deck that walks through the process and supporting information. Great stuff. ... Source : Jimmy May - msdn.com - Blog Post

Sizing Storage for Performance Requirements

A good article that describes a method to calculate the number of spindles/disks in a storage system required to meet a given workload ... Source : SQLJunkies.com - Article

Cheers